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November 2008
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Next Meeting: Thursday, 20 November, 2008, 7:30 PM at the Oak
View Community Center
The Official
Newsletter of the
President Mike Ambarian (805)-646-6084 Vice President Dale Nash
(805) 532-1433
Secretary Sandy Brown (805)-487-2215
Treasurer Emery Balasa (805)-642-1401 Field Marshal /Safety
Steve Billings (805) 487-2215
Park Liaison Ken Marsh (805) 646-1962
Webmaster Don Sorensen (805) 968-4288 [email protected]
Comets’ Tale Editor Jerry Deanda (805) 641-3730
[email protected]
Comets’ Website: www.vccomets.com Board of Directors
Mike Ambarian, Dale Nash, Sandy Brown, Emery Balasa and Steve
Billings Instructor Pilots
Emery Balasa Steve Billings Andrew Carlson Bob Root Ron
Scott
George Lanquist TJ Moran Steve Steinmetz Alastair Brennan The
Comets’ Tale is the official newsletter and record of the Ventura
County
Comets, AMA Chartered Club #173 and is published monthly at the
Comets’ Tale Plaza, somewhere in Ventura.
Editorial contributions are welcome.
The Comets’ Tale
Coming
Up!
21, 22, 23 November
Club Members Only Float Fly at Lake Casitas
Thursday, 18 December Annual Comets
Christmas Potluck
1st Sunday of Each
Month
Open House at Santa Paula Airport
Root’s Rambling
This year George Boston attended the Reno Air Races. He is a
great photogra-pher and took a lot of pictures. He loaned two CD’s
to some of us (about 350 pic-tures). After looking at them I
decided to go thru my racing file, which leads me to the subject of
this months offering. The Reno Air Races, almost from the
be-ginning, have in-cluded an air show as well as the races. The
following pictures were taken by George. Air show pictures 1, 2,
and 3 show the Thunder-birds and the Air Force old and new. Seeing
the airplanes up close in the pits is an important part of the
show. Picture 4 shows a Sea Fury. Typical unlimited racers are
shown in picture 5 (P-51) and 6
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(Sea Fury) and an unusual but not very com-petitive Tigercat is
shown in pic-ture 7. Picture 8 shows two planes in the Sport
Biplane class. This event has been legislated back to sport
air-
planes after a period of development into very specialized
rac-ing biplanes in the 80’s and 90’s. The Reno Air Races were
originally initiated
by Bill Stead, a successful cattle rancher, member of the
Unlimited Hydroplane Racing Hall of Fame, and the owner of a white
Grumman Bearcat which he flew off dirt roads on his vast ranch
northeast of Reno. The last Cleveland National Air Race ended with
a terrible accident in 1949. Midget races continued until 1960 but
drew little public interest. In 1962
Stead started working on the problem. He used all his business
skills to convince a tough gambling town that this sport could do
wonders for business. He spent two years convincing the Reno
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casinos and hotels, the state government, and fi-nally ABC-TV
“Wide World of Sports” and the National Air Races were reborn in
September of 1964. These early events were held at Bill’s Sky Ranch
which was more grazing land than airport, lacking hard-surface
runways, hangars, and ramps.
How-ever, it was out in the wilds with plenty of room for a long
course for the Mustangs and Bearcats he had named the Unlimited
class. He also included a transconti-nental race from St.
Pe-tersburg, Fl. (2,260 mi.), the midget
racers (190 cu. in. engines), a class for the home-built
bi-planes, and a Stock Plane class for the women pilots (who
weren’t allowed to race around pylons with the men until the 70’s).
The transcontinental race was won by a stock P-51D at 320 mph. All
of the unlimited racers were pretty
much stock with a P-51 winning at 395 mph. The old 1948
Unlimited record was 418 mph held by a Cobra II. At that time I was
working for Boeing in Seattle, but my folks were living in Sparks
Nevada (a suburb of Reno). As an airplane nut I had a natural
interest, and I was able to attend the races in 1965. I didn’t take
any pic-tures but I have a lot of 8 mm film of the flying (now on a
VCR tape). My memory was that some of the unlimited racers
oper-
ated out of the Reno commercial airport because of the short
runway at the ranch (the unlimited races were started
in the air). The unlimited winner was Greena-myer in a modified
F8F2 Bearcat at 375 mph. Bill Falck pushed his midget class Rivets
205 mph in the time trials, but the final event was won by Little
Gem at 202 mph. The Sport Biplane class was won by a Mong Sport at
153 mph. There were only 3 entrants in the Stock Plane class so
this was the last year for this class.
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In the spring of 1966 bill Stead died in a midget racer
crash during a practice flight. The organization was so solid
that it was able to carry on without him. The site was moved to the
recently deactivated Stead Air Force Base (named after Bill’s late
brother) where it is held to this day. In 1966 Bill Falck won the
midget finals at 193 mph. The unlimited race was won by Greenamyer
at 396 mph. The transcontinental race was won by a Hawker Sea Fury,
the first of its type to race, at 418 mph.
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I have an article on the 1967 fourth an-nual Reno air races.
Picture 9 shows the 190 cu. in. midget racers (they went to 200 cu.
in. in 1968). Top winner was Bill Falck in his famous Rivets (#92).
Picture 10 shows one of the unlimited racers (P-39), and 11 shows
Greenamyer’s winning Bear-cat. I attended the races again in 1974
on the way to my new job at Northrop. That year Lyle Shelton flew
his Wright R-3350-
powered Bearcat to a time trials re-cord of 432 mph, but bowed
to Ken Burnstine at 382 mph in the finals when all the hot ones
dropped out. By this time there were a lot of spe-cially designed
airplanes in the Sport Biplane class. Sid White and his all-metal
Sun-dancer won the finals at 195 mph. Ray Cote won the midget class
now called For-mula One in Shoestring at 235 mph. By this time the
more or less stock AT-6 class was included with Pat Palmer (a
Boeing engineer) winning at 211 mph. Pictures from the 1976 races
include the specially designed biplane in picture 12 and the more
traditional Knight Twister biplane in 13. The Knight Twister was a
small biplane designed in the 30’s and raced success-
fully for years. The effect of a crosswind dur-ing the takeoff
of a biplane heat is shown in picture 14. A highly modified P-51
with a huge Rolls-Royce Griffon engine is shown in 15 and the
unlimited winning modified P-51 is shown in 16. Picture 17 shows a
typical AT-6 race. Pat Palmer won again this year. The last year I
have info on is 1987 when the unlimited time trials speed was 467
mph for the P-51 Strega and a custom built airplane, Tsunami, was
second at 465 mph. In the finals Strega won at 453 mph. The AT-6
class was won at 226 mph. Formula One racers are shown in picture
18 (Sump’n Else), 19 (Rivets), 20 (my favorite, with elliptical
wing, Stinger). One of the big Sea Fury’s is shown
in 21. The year 2008 represented the 45th running of the
National Air Races, quite an achievement for an event started by a
business man who loved big fast airplanes. Everyone should attend
these races at least once. They are amazing. I may discuss pictures
of other Reno racers in my file including some of the latest
airplanes in a later Ram-ble if members are interested.
Bob Root
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October 2008 Minutes
The Comet meeting was called to order by President Mike Ambarian
on October 16, at 7:30 pm, at the Oak View Community Center. The
September minutes were approved. We had no guests and no new
members. Treasurer’s Report: We have 111 members and finances are
in very good shape. The report was approved. Field Marshall/Safety
Officer: Steve Billings had nothing to report. Park Liaison: Kenny
Marsh reported that the inspection of floats, for the upcoming
Float Fly, was still a re-quirement for all participating planes.
Planes are required to have a sticker, showing it was inspected, in
order to be launched. Old Business: Volunteers for all jobs are
ready of the Float Fly. The Contest Director (CD), Ron Scott
re-minded everybody of safety issues. It was voted that no buddy
boxes would be allowed on Saturday or Sun-day. The Safety Officer,
Steve Billings, is in charge of the plane launchers. Dale Nash
informed the Club that he had purchased orange vests for all
launchers, so they could easily be identified as launchers. The
vests can be checked out from Marilyn Nash and Sandy Brown at the
raffle table. If vests are not returned there will be a $10 fee.
New Business: AMA requested our participation in charity flying
functions. Members voted to let it slide. Pres. Mike Ambarian
reported on bids obtained for applying a slurry coating on the
field. One bid came in at $1,600 for 7,000 square feet. Another
company was a no bid. The Board approved a bid of $4,080. The Club
members will power wash the field prior to the paving company
applying a spec slurry to fill in cracks. After drying, the final
slurry will be applied. T.J. Moran reported on the meeting he
attended of the Bureau of Land and Recreation. The lease for Lake
Ca-sitas area is due for its 50 year renewal and many laws have
changed since the lease was signed 50 years ago. He advised Club
members the Bureau is collecting comments, to their proposed plan
for Lake Casitas land use, until the end of the month. Steve
Billings informed the Club about a new Rocket Racing league that
races a three-dimensional "Raceway in the Sky". The track will be
approximately one mile wide, two miles long and one mile high. The
raceway will vary in shape and complexity, and consist of gates and
obstacles created through a sophisticated avionics package that
melds the real world with the virtual, presenting to the pilots and
spectators a real-time depiction of the race course containing the
virtual raceway, navigation metrics and safety aids. Check it out
at rocketracingleague.com . Model of the Month: Ron Scott brought
his Eagle electric plane made out of PVC foam. The plane is
realistic enough to fool the hawks that circled it when he flew it
earlier in the day. The plane uses a 200 milliamp battery. The
raffle was held and the meeting was adjourned at 8:00.
Respectfully Submitted,
Sandy Brown
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Last month’s Whatzit airplane is a Dart Kitten, built by Dart
Aircraft Ltd. Of England in 1937. The engine is a 36 hp J.A.P. J.99
flat twin. Cruises at 83 mph and tops out at 95. It’s all wood and
I believe this is the only one built. This month we have a biplane
hanging in the Udvar-Hazy restoration facility, part of the
Smithsonian Insti-
tute. Cap’n Leo Jaskoski on Avondale AZ submit-ted this airplane
and he didn’t tell me what it is ei-ther. Do you know? -jerry
Comets Float Fly, 18 & 19 October 2008
Ron Scott Ron Scott Ron Scott
TJ Moran
TJ Moran
